Just Incredible
by light4dawn
Summary: A Pre-Twilight Jacob Bella One Shot written for one of Jacob Black n Pack's Writing Challenges. The prompt for this challenge was the song, "To Build a Home" by Cinematic Orchestra.


_A Pre-Twilight Jacob Bella One Shot written for one of Jacob Black n Pack's Writing Challenges. The prompt for this challenge was the song, "To Build a Home" by Cinematic Orchestra._

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><p><strong>Disclaimer<strong>

_The following is based on the characters, settings, and events that appear in the Twilight series of books by Stephenie Meyer. All recognizable and/or trademarked elements, including, but not limited to, characters, settings, events, plot points, dialogue, etcetera, are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended. The author of this specific story (known by the pen name, light4dawn) is in no way associated with Stephenie Meyer, or any other affiliates involved with the Twilight series of books and the stories within. This work is intended for entertainment purposes only, and no profit is knowingly generated as a result of it. Only aspects entirely unique and original to this story are owned by this story's author._

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><p><strong>Just Incredible<strong>

It was hard work, especially out in the sun. The mortar I made kept drying out too fast. Maybe it needed more grass clippings. More water just made it all runny.

I heard a car pull up, but ignored it at first. Then I heard a girl's voice. She didn't sound happy. I knew this because I could tell when a girl was pissed off. I had a lot of experience with girls, on account of how I had two older sisters. Of course, that totally sucked. It would've been way cooler to have a brother.

"Daddy, I don't want to," I heard the girl whine. She wasn't nearly as loud as Rachel or Becca, but I knew whining when I heard it. "Why can't we stay home?"

"Honey, you'll have fun. I promise," a man answered. I knew that voice. It was Dad's friend. It wasn't Mr. Clearwater; it was the white man from town. The policeman. He had shown me how handcuffs worked once.

"I barely know them!" I had no idea who the girl was talking about because she didn't use names.

"Of _course_ you do. You've known them since you were in diapers!" Was Chief Swan talking about _us_? They _were_ at _our_ house. I _did_ remember meeting his girl once, but that was more than a year ago, and she was older, closer to Rach and Becca's age than mine. It didn't matter though; she was still a girl. Ew.

"I've only seen them once a year at most. Some visits, we completely missed them!" Yup, she was definitely talking about us. I was sure of it.

"Honey, they're nice girls," Oh, not me, just my sisters. Even better. The last thing I wanted was to be forced to hang out with that bookworm instead of finishing my building project. "I promised Harry and Billy. Sweetheart, it'll just be a couple of hours. Mrs. Black and Mrs. Clearwater will be here too. They're always nice, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so, but if I want to be by myself, you can't force me to play with them!" She sounded a little different. My sisters didn't talk about "playing" anymore. They were too "mature" for that. Now they "hung out" which looked boring, if you asked me. "Well, at least it's not raining," she grumbled.

After that, everything kind of quieted down. I heard the front door open and close, and then Dad's voice came through the open window as he spoke to Chief Swan. I didn't really pay attention to what they were saying, because I was busy looking for the right sized rocks. That's when I noticed my work was about to be destroyed.

"Hey! Don't touch that! You'll wreck it!" Chief Swan's girl was bent over my stuff, poking her finger at it. She stood up quickly, almost stepping on the entire thing! "Back up! You're going to ruin it!"

She got all scared and took a step back, but ended up slipping in my mortar, which made her fall right in it! Great, just what I needed. It had taken me _ages_ to get it to just the right consistency!

"You scared me! Look what you did; I'm a complete mess!" she yelled.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault! You're the one that started touching my stuff. And it's _not_ my fault that you're a total klutz either!" I shouted back

"What stuff, this pile of rocks and mud? Give me a break!"

"Shows you how much you know! That was going to be an epic house!"

"For whom? A field mouse?" She sounded snooty to me.

"It's to show my friend, not that it's any of _your_ business. He bet that I couldn't make one with only stuff I found laying around, with no tools, that would last after a storm."

"You think _this_ will last through a storm?" she said doubtfully.

"Well, not like it is right _now_, but once it's done, sure."

"What do you get if you win?" she asked.

"Bragging rights," I blurted out, after thinking for a minute.

"That's it? Sounds like a lot of effort for nothing."

I didn't want her thinking I was a chump, not that I cared what some girl thought, but I also didn't want my parents to find out. Besides, she looked like the type that would tell. What kind of kid used words like "whom"?

I guess she noticed me thinking things over or something because next thing I knew, she was asking me all these questions.

"It's for something else, isn't it? I can tell by the look on your face!"

"You can't 'tell' anything! You barely know me. For all _you_ know, I always have this look on my face. I bet you don't even remember my name!" White people barely remembered stuff like that around here. They probably thought we all looked alike.

"Your name is Jacob." I didn't answer. "Look, how about we make our own bet?" I looked at her, raising an eyebrow. What could _she_ have that I'd be interested in? "How about… if you can remember my name, I'll leave and never bug you again, but if you _can't_ remember my name, you have to tell me what your bet was for."

"Why should I agree to anything with _you_?"

"Because, if you don't, I might go and tell Mrs. Black you're making bets with your friends for things you don't want to tell me about." I knew it! I _knew_ she was a tattletale!

"Fine, but I need a couple of minutes."

"Sure, take all the time you want," she answered, with a know-it-all smile on her face.

I recognized it from before. She probably didn't even know she made that face. She thought she knew everything just because she was always reading books. I remembered now. She always talked to Becca and Rach like they didn't know anything, but they read just as much as she did. Now if only I could remember her name…

I knew it was something really boring, like the type of name somebody's grandma, or great aunt, would have. But it wasn't Martha, or Mary. It was something long, sort of snobby sounding. I was pretty sure it started with a vowel. Crap, why couldn't she just have a regular name like her dad? Charlie was a cool name. Whatever _hers_ was, it was not cool.

Girl's names that started with a vowel… how many of them could there be? Anne, Alison, Emily, Erin, Irene, Iris, Olivia… Wait, that sounded like it! It ended with an 'a' and she used a short form of it, like… Liv… yeah, that sounded right.

"Olivia!" I yelled out.

"Nope," she answered.

"Well, then what is it?"

"Bella." Crap. That's right. It was Isabella, but she always wanted everyone to use Bella. I didn't know why. Bella sounded like a fat girl, and she was anything but. "So…?" she asked.

"So, what?"

"So, fess up! What did you and your friend bet?"

"You promise not to tell, not even your dad, because he'll tell my dad."

"Of course. My dad would never ask anyway."

"You know Mr. Clearwater's daughter, Leah?"

"I remember he had a girl, about a year older than me, right?"

"Yeah, that's her. Anyhow, she's been dating this guy who's older. He's in high school already. Anyhow, he's got a bunch of firecrackers hidden away somewhere in his garage. The loser has to go and steal them."

"Why would you steal from someone?" Girls just never understood.

"Because firecrackers are cool, and besides, he won't even notice. Ever since him and Leah started dating, he stopped being interested in anything else."

"If he doesn't care about it, why wouldn't you just ask for them?"

"Because he's not supposed to have them either. He's older, but not _that_ much older! His mom is just at work a lot, so he gets away with doing all sorts of stuff."

"If he _doesn't_ care about them, why is it such a big deal to steal them? Sounds like he wouldn't even stop you, never mind get angry."

"Oh, he'd get angry, and he's a really big guy. Whether he cared or not, they're still his. Besides, we're a lot younger than him, and if he knew we had them, he'd tell on us for sure. I bet he'd say they weren't his."

"But you and your friend would tell everyone otherwise. It would be his word against yours."

"His word is worth more than ours. I told you, he's older, and everyone around here thinks he's all responsible and stuff."

"Hmmm. Okay, sounds like you better not lose. Maybe I can help you?"

"I don't know… usually girls suck at this sort of stuff."

"Well, why don't you tell me what you're trying to do, and we can see if I 'suck' at it or not."

I explained it all to her and she ended up being pretty helpful. She _did_ suck at most of it. Bella was completely useless when it came to finding materials. Every time she went into the woods, she'd trip or get lost. Eventually, we figured out she was better at tasks where she could stay seated.

Bella ended up making the best mortar though. It was even better than the batch I had made earlier, that she had ruined. She also did a good job of coming up with details that I hadn't thought of, like window frames and stuff.

We ended up using rocks for most of the walls, some tree bark for the roof and door, and a few sticks for window frames and things. She even suggested a little table to put inside before we made the roof.

Of course, I did all the building. I was good at that sort of thing. She wasn't. Basically, if it required eye-hand coordination, she sucked. I was pretty sure she sucked at video games too.

We were just finishing up when Quil came by. He acted like a total little kid. He was so immature compared to me.

"Jake! Hey, who's your girrrrrlfriend?"

"Don't be such a douche, Quil. This is Chief Swan's kid. Dad and Mr. Clearwater are out fishing with him, so she was forced to stay here."

"So, is this the house?"

"Yeah, and it's pretty much done."

"Is it the minimum size we agreed on?"

"Yup. You can measure it if you don't trust me."

Of course, he didn't. He pulled out a tape measure from his pocket (What kind of nerd walked around with a measuring tape in his pocket?) and inspected my house.

"Okay, Black, you just made it." He was such a jerk. I had more than "just made it"! It was almost twice as big as what we had agreed on, and he didn't need to measure it to figure _that_ out!

"So, now what?" I asked.

"Well, they said on TV we were supposed to get some rain tonight. Hopefully it'll be enough that we can call it a storm. By the way, you can't go and put some umbrella up over it or something!"

"I wouldn't do anything so stupid! Besides, then my dumb sisters will see it!"

"Well, how am I supposed to know you're not cheating?"

"Stay over. It's Saturday, and it's not like your mom, or my mom will mind."

"Well… what's your mom making for dinner? Cause, mine's making spaghetti, and I'm not passing that up for something like fish your dad caught."

"She's making steaks. Chief Swan's staying to eat with us, so she got something special. I know there'll be extra because Bella here barely eats and Rach and Beck will only have half each."

"How would you know if I eat a lot or not?" Bella asked, looking pissed off.

"Well, _do_ you? Can you _actually_ eat an entire sixteen ounce steak, because that's how big they are?"

She didn't answer. Maybe I hadn't remembered her name, but there were still plenty of things I _did_ remember.

"Yeah, I thought so." I turned to Quil and said to him, "Look, just come by around six-thirty and wait until we all sit down to eat. I'll go to the bathroom and turn on the light once the food's been dished out. When you see the light, knock on the door and ask if I'm home. I'll come to the door right away, then ask my mom if you can stay since we have leftovers and stuff, okay?"

"All right. I'll go and let my mom know I'm staying over."

"Okay, see you, six-thirty."

Once Quil left, I noticed Bella was still examining the house.

"Hey, whatcha looking at?" She was helpful and all, but I didn't want her to think she could mess with it. It was still _mine_.

"I was thinking we should give it a name," she answered.

"It's a house, not a pet." Next thing I knew, she'd want to paint it pink or something.

"All the rich people name their houses, and all the castles in Europe have names."

"This is _my_ house, and it doesn't need some dumb name."

"Just because it has a name doesn't mean it 's dumb. And it's _our_ house. I helped, remember?"

"Don't go taking credit for it! I did all the work; you just sat around stirring mud and barking out dumb ideas."

"If they were so dumb, why did you use them?"

"Fine."

"Huh?" She was clueless.

"You can name it," I said. "But it has to be something cool, not girlie."

"Okay. Hmmm …" She sat down, with a finger tapping her chin, and her eyebrows came together making a little crease appear between her eyes. "I got it! Just Incredible!"

"Huh? What's just incredible?" I asked, confused.

"The house."

"I already know that. I built it!"

"No, I mean that could be the name. J for Jacob and I for Isabella, it'll be like our little secret. Even your friend won't know what it means. That way we both know it's our house, but the name sounds… cool, right."

It was actually kind of lame, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I just smiled and agreed. If there was one thing I had learned from having two older sisters, it was that you let the little things go with girls, because _everything_ was a big deal to them.

"Yeah, sure, sounds cool."

I didn't know why, but the two of us ended up sitting out in the sun, staring at the little house. She seemed really happy that it was sunny. I noticed her leaning back, with her hands behind her, and her head tilted up, soaking in the heat. I was afraid she'd get burned because she was so pale, but what did I care?

"So, did you make it with stones because that's the kind of house you'd like one day?" she asked me.

"What, one that's barely big enough for me to step into?"

"No, silly! One made out of stone."

I shrugged. I was just a kid. Why would I be thinking about what kind of house I wanted? "I don't know, never really thought about it much."

"Well, I'd want one like this. I think it's perfect. It looks… comfortable. You know, not too big or anything and made of natural materials. It's like something you could imagine discovering out in the woods, like Snow White's cottage."

"Yeah, I guess." I really didn't know what I was supposed to say.

"Hey, do you think when you grow up you'd be a house builder or something?"

I shrugged again. "Don't know. I'm good at putting things together, and I like that kind of stuff. I guess building houses would be cool."

"I'd hire you, especially if you made one like this for me."

"Thanks." Really, what else was I supposed to say? I just hoped she wasn't going to try and kiss me or something gross like that. I once caught Rachel practicing how to kiss in the bathroom. It was disgusting. Why would a guy want to risk getting some girl's spit in his mouth? Lucky for me, she didn't try any funny stuff.

Everything went as planned that night. Quil came just in time to eat the half steak that was left over because Bella couldn't eat more than half. Actually she didn't even eat that. Anyhow, he stayed over, and just as predicted, there was an epic thunderstorm that night.

The next morning, I was woken up by some noise coming from the front of the house. I hated having the bedroom closest to the front. Dad always woke me up whenever he went on one of his early morning fishing trips, and today was Sunday!

I was all annoyed and trying to get back to sleep, when I heard mom and Chief Swan talking.

"I really appreciate this, Sarah, especially so early in the morning."

"Oh, it's no problem Charlie. Come, Bella, I bet you haven't had a chance to eat a proper breakfast yet."

Bella was here? This early? Oh, I guess she wasn't allowed to stay at home by herself.

"Actually, Mrs. Black, thank you, but I'm not very hungry. Do you mind if I go to your backyard? Jake and I were… working on something yesterday, and I want to check on it."

"Why sure, dear. Is that why you decided to come here with your dad, honey?" I didn't hear an answer. I guess she nodded. Why did she care? "Well you go ahead, Bella. I'm making breakfast anyway, since the others will be up any moment now. If you change your mind, let me know. They'll be plenty of food."

Next, I heard the door open and close. Darn! She was going to check on the house. There was no way she was going to check on _my_ house before I got a chance to see it first!

I pulled on the first pair of pants I could find and ran out to the backyard, not bothering to answer my mom when she asked me some dumb question about Quil.

As soon as I was out, I saw her. She was standing in front of our house — I meant _my_ house — looking down at it glumly. As I got closer, I noticed the house hadn't survived the storm after all. She bent down, trying to put back part of the roof, but I reached her before she finished replacing the fallen piece.

"Don't bother. There's not enough time to fix everything before Quil notices."

"It's not that …" she said. Her voice sounded funny, like she might cry, but I didn't see any tears. "It was nice imagining I had this little cottage. You know, a home where I could live forever and never have to move."

"Oh. Bella, it was just a stupid pile of rocks. I'm sure one day you'll have a real house like this, but bigger of course."

"Yeah, sure." She let out a loud sigh and walked back into the house after that.

Later that day, after dad and Chief Swan came back, I overheard Bella talking as she walked to the cruiser.

"Dad, I don't like it here."

"What happened? Did one of the kids give you a hard time?"

"No, I don't mean at the Blacks' place, I mean here, _Forks_, La Push."

"Honey, I'm sorry it wasn't fun for you. I promise, from now on no more fishing. We'll do whatever you want."

"No, it's not that. I just don't like how it always rains here, and almost every time I come to visit it's cold. And… and I have a home somewhere else. Why can't we go on vacation when we see each other, like everyone else? This isn't my home! I don't want to come here again!"

"Bella, don't cry. Look, we'll talk about it some more when we get home. We'll figure something out that you like, okay?"

"Promise?"

"Of course, sweetie, promise."

Then I heard two car doors slam shut and the cruiser drove off.

That was pathetic. What kind of person had a tantrum over some dumb house made of pebbles? She wasn't even the one who had lost the bet! And then that crap with her dad. There was _no_ way I was _ever_ going to let some girl wrap me around her finger like Chief Swan let his kid do. He was supposed to be the Chief of Police and all that girl had to do was whimper to make him cave. What a sap!

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><p><em>Thanks for reading and I appreciate reviews!<em>


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